Particle Physics and Maori culture

Today was a visit to “Rutherford’s Den” at Canterbury College, site of the gold foil scattering experiment by Ernest Rutherford in the early 1900s. These experiments led to our modern understanding of the structure of the atom with a dense nucleus. Rutherford attained a professorship at age 27 and won the Nobel prize at age 37.

We spent a little more time walking around the city and admiring the public art, stopping at an outdoor public market for lunch. The weather has been perfect—sunny and in the low 70s.

In the evening, we went to a Maori cultural center, which demonstrated village life and dances. We also enjoyed a Hāngi meal, traditionally cooked using heated rocks in a pit oven (think luau).Read more